Sustainable non-woven sorbents based on jute post-industrial waste for cleaning of oil spills

Intensified oil exploitation accompanied with frequent oil spills having a detrimental impact on ecosystems are seeking efficient, environmentally and economically feasible solutions. In an attempt to develop an efficient, reusable, biodegradable and cheap sorbent for oil clean-up non-woven sorbents based on recycled jute post-industrial textile waste were fabricated. The influence of area density of non-woven sorbents and hydrophobicity of fibers on overall oil sorption performance was the focus of this research. All sorbents showed a good reusability after five sorption cycles and buoyancy in water even after 24 h independently of sorbent structure. The area density of sorbents and viscosity of studied oils (crude oil, diesel oil and two types of motor oils) highly affected the oil sorption capacity and oil retention. The sorbent with the lowest area density exhibited the best oil sorption performance. The esterification of jute with stearic fatty acid contributed to decrease in water uptake of sorbents but also to negligible change of oil sorption behavior indicating that the structure of the sorbent in this case plays a crucial role. •Post-industrial jute waste can be efficiently recycled into non-woven material.•Area density of jute sorbents significantly affects overall oil sorption behavior.•Sorbent particularly convenient for high viscosity oils.•Hydrophobization with stearic fatty acid reduces water-uptake of sorbent.•Reusability of sorbents is possible in spite the loss of oil capacity by 50%.